Tag: fashion

“The reasons are purely aesthetic, not medical, especially for women. They want to get thin no matter what, all
because of images from north of the Equator. It is a cruel cultural
imposition on the Brazilian woman.”

Dr. Elisaldo de
Araújo Carlini, "a professor at the Federal University of São Paulo."

“To be fat used to be considered wonderful in Brazil, because it
showed that you eat very well, which is important to Brazilians. That you have three meals a day and eat
meat and beans, calmly, at a table with friends and relatives, means
that someone is taking good care of you.”

Roberto da Matta, "an anthropologist and newspaper columnist who is a leading social commentator."

“Those huge breasts you see in the United States, like in Playboy, were
always considered ridiculous in Brazil. But there is now more of a
tendency than before to want breasts that are a bit larger — not to
make them huge, mind you, but more proportional as part of a body that
is more svelte and more athletic.”

“This abrupt shift is a feminine
decision that reflects changing roles […] Men are still resisting and clearly
prefer the rounder, fleshier type. But women want to be free and
powerful, and one way to reject submission is to adopt these
international standards that have nothing to do with Brazilian society.”

Mary del Priore, "a historian and co-author of 'The History of Private Life in Brazil'"

[…] In her book “Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk About Sexuality” (Harvard University
Press), Deborah Tolman, the director of the Center for Research on
Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University and a professor
of human sexuality studies there, found that some 30 teenage girls she
studied understood being sexy as “being sexy for someone else, not for
themselves,” she said.

When the girls were asked what makes
them feel sexy, they had difficulty answering, Dr. Tolman said, adding
that they heard the question as “What makes you look sexy?”

Many
women’s costumes, with their frilly baby-doll dresses and high-heeled
Mary Janes, also evoke male Lolita fantasies and reinforce the larger
cultural message that younger is hotter.

(Not necessarily humorless editor's note: An earlier version of this post was titled "Look and feel, aka "You can't say 'Halloween' without 'all-new hoe.' " No garden tools were harmed in the creation of the post.)